Thursday, October 26, 2006

'Rite R Us

Most of us are familiar with the Toys R Us store chain as a leading retailer of toys. But how many is aware that the name itself, while catchy, has been the subject of some debate by linguists and language purists? These people, some of them anyway, argue that it should have been Toys R We if you want to be grammatically correct about it.

Now there is a name that does not evoke such a controversy: WriteAbout.Us . Neither is it a household name, not yet anyway. But it’s beginning to make a presence in cyber space.

Its business model is selling space on its web site, with a twist. Unlike similar efforts that have come before them, they offer free spaces on their web site, with a catch, the catch being you need to blog about it in order to claim your space, one of the 60 available. The spaces are given out in rotation following the ubiquitous rule of first in first out. But I wonder whether they accept repeat business, meaning if you blog about it again, do you get to enjoy your moment of fame all over again? What if you’re a multi-blogger, could you write about them on every other, or every one of your blogs?

Well, these are questions for later. Now I have something more immediate to attend to, like listing the reasons why my blog should claim its rightful place in the cyber roll of honor, however fleeting that sojourn maybe, Letterman-style:

At number ten, I’m just about running out of topic to blog. Then this dandy offer comes along. What a pleasant surprise!

At number nine, like my blog, it also has won the Buzzbadge (on Oct 26), but after me (on Oct 10).

At number eight, it’s a freebie, and I’ve never been known to pass up on one.

At number seven, I love writing on something I know nothing about extemporaneously.

At number six, my daughter is waiting to use the computer. So I need to churn something out fast.

At number five, it’s always good to pause at the half-way point. But wait, this is not exactly halfway as only odd number of items have a half way point. So this is half of the half way point, the other half being number six.

At number four, if I can get away with what is number five, which has basically nothing to do with the why, this should be OK too.

At number three, we are now entering the top three reasons, this better be good. Oh yes, it’s exposure; it’s opportunity to showcase what I’ve been busy doing the past month.

At number two, the penultimate, today is the first anniversary of my maiden blog, or rather luniversary (as in a month) save for a few days short (my maiden blog was actually dated Sep 30 but who is counting?)

And at UNO, drumroll please: I don’t believe in buying a space (otherwise a frugal guy like me would never make it, and yes, there are 100 of them going for sale, but here the lowest bid will get squeezed out of the revolving door first), especially a virtual one. I believe in earning it, by the only way I know best: blogging.

Knock, knock, are you (the WriteAbout.Us guys) still there?

No? As a bonus, I'm throwing in the best sketch my wife has ever done. See for yourself. And then go back to see all the archived sketches as well as the ones on my other blog, Going Global. While you're there, might as well settle in to partake of my blog, the content that is.

Mom made all the little pictures in your blog? I thought they might be! Heehee. Anyway, since you said you're "runnig out of topics" (yeah, right!), here's something interesting I found out: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/10/5/nation/15635115&sec=nation. I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet. Any thoughts?

Sorry to have to push you one notch down, Daniel. Are you tempted to start a similar model on your own? BlogAbout.Us maybe.

As to my daughter, I thought I explained the provenance of the sketches right on my maiden blog. Anyway, now you know. You can see then that the blog is a family effort, Mom giving me the time of the day to blog, within limits of course.

Yes, the language police in Malaysia is the only kind in the world, I think. So far I've refrained from blogging things Malaysian. But if I were to start it would be at Going Global. So stay tuned.